When the time comes how do you put a chicken down ?

[Reg]

Nasty but a need to know question I guess.

Also what do you do with her after? Will it be any good as food ?

We are here to learn !!!!!!!!

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

If the chicken is not sick, and you are just culling due to low egg production or pecking or some other non-illness issue - you can still use her meat. I am a chop the head off type of girl, so that is what we do here.


Older birds make fantastic stock and the meat can be used in soup or pot pies.


Great article on home-grown birds - not the cornish/rock crosses. www.albc-usa.org/documents/cookingwheritagechicken.pdf

 

[Teach97]

if the bird is sick or sucha thing you probably just want to dispose of the carcass (burial or trash) usually sick birds have so little on them that it isn't worth it o ryou have medicated or you just don't want to risk it...

dpends on the reason I am putting them down and the size of the bird...head chopping is always quick but it isn't always the quickest..if something really bad happens like the time I found a bird with a leg pulled off from a coon attack I go for faster means and wring their neck...not the swing them around thig bit a quick jerk snap thing

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

If i'm going to eat it chop off the head. If not wring it's neck.

Steve

 

[Mac in Wisco]

I either cut the neck and let them bleed out or do a cervical dislocation. For cervical dislocation you grab the head in one hand and give the body a hard flip downward to dislocate the neck or put the head under a broomstick, hold the broomstick in place with your feet, and pull on the legs until the dislocation occurs.

I prefer the knife or the broomstick. The body flip doesn't always give good results with lighter birds. The animal rights groups seem to prefer cervical dislocation as more humane than other methods.

 

[Born 2 Maul]

I have never killed a chicken, having said that, when I was serving in the Army we used to kill Chickens and Rabbits on demonstration days. The qualified butcher would hold the chicken in one hand and with the other grab the chickens neck, twist and pull down. On many occaision the head would come away from the body. Appearently the most humane way to do it.

As long as the chicken is not got a disease of any kind then theres no reason why it can not be eaten.

 

[Captain Carrot]

I always wring the neck if I'm going to eat it or not, with ducks I chop just becasue I can't wring a ducks neck.

I've also used a very sharp knife asfter a dog attack, just to put the poor thing out of it's missery.

All of my animal waste is picked up by the council when i need it. It's the same guys who pick rabbits and deer off the road.

If it was heathy, eat it. if it was sick leave it alone.

old birds need slow cooking or with plenty of liquids.

 

[bobbi-j]

Hatchet or sharp knife. Both are quick.

 

[Captain Carrot]

Quote:
true but you have to hold the chicken still while you do it, which can be tricky unless you've got help

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
true but you have to hold the chicken still while you do it, which can be tricky unless you've got help

When I use a knife I usually use some cord or wire to hang them from a fence post by their ankles.